All About Sherbrooke (universities, living in, military)

[Jesse44]

Does Sherbrooke ever get mentioned here? It doesn't seem like it to me.

I was surprised to see it's got a solid 150K population and looks quite pretty!

What's going on over there? Is it a nice place to live? The photos I've seen make it seem like it has some nice little historic quarters and a cool mini QC/Montreal vibe, with seemingly plenty of little colourful shops and cafes.

Is there a major industry there? How does it fall into being one of Canada's second tier cities? By this I mean, Sudbury, Lethbridge, etc. type of populations.

[Acajack]

It's metro area is actually around 200,000.

In Quebec at least, it's more or less tied with Gatineau in third spot for the most popular place to live or move to, behind the Montreal area and Quebec City.

[BIMBAM]

Originally Posted by Jesse44

Does Sherbrooke ever get mentioned here? It doesn't seem like it to me.

I was surprised to see it's got a solid 150K population and looks quite pretty!

What's going on over there? Is it a nice place to live? The photos I've seen make it seem like it has some nice little historic quarters and a cool mini QC/Montreal vibe, with seemingly plenty of little colourful shops and cafes.

Is there a major industry there? How does it fall into being one of Canada's second tier cities? By this I mean, Sudbury, Lethbridge, etc. type of populations.

Lots of universities and CEGEPs there. There's Université de Sherbrooke which is a serious university with medicine and law programs, a smaller English language university called Bishop's University, two French language CEGEPs, and an English language CEGEP called Champlain college. It's the service centre for all of the Eastern townships, a rail hub, and it's got a diverse economy that includes industrial, office jobs, and some military presence. It has some nice markets there in the summer I've been to, some small museums and festivals, a bit of architectural heritage despite generally being a pretty sprawling and low slung centre. All said, a decent city of its size in Canada, although it's a bit forgotten about here because it's in Quebec, bit off the beaten track of the Montreal - Quebec corridor, and it's not isolated enough to anchor a large region like St. John's or Kelowna are. It shouldn't be though, the Eastern Townships are very charming in general, I find they're quite underrated and areas like the Maritimes get alot more tourism press despite Estrie/ETs having tons of bucolic charm in an easily navigable region convenient to many Canadians.

[Migratory Chicken]

I studied a few years in Sherbrooke, and it's indeed a very nice city where I wouldn't mind at all living again. For students it's a great place, and the quality of its universities attracts students from all around Quebec and even a certain amount from abroad. It's predominantly francophone but also has a certain amount of ethnic diversity, and an anglophone community mostly living in Lennoxville.

[Acajack]

Sherbrooke also could use a little more vibrancy in its downtown (likely coming along eventually), but overall it's a pretty attractive Canadian city of its size.

[UrbanLuis]

Sherbrooke is a pretty city. One of my friends older sister went to Bishops University in near by Lennoxville. We visited her a few times and we would go into Sherbrooke to get something to eat or go to a movie, but mostly we were in the area to get out doors and go hiking, biking, canoeing etc. The scenery south of Sherbrooke is really nice.